This painting belongs to one of this artist’s most creative periods, coinciding with the year he married Lulú Jourdain, who would become his muse and model. In 1931, his compositions had already moved away from , getting closer to a brand of figuration which, while by no means conventional, was growing increasingly more explicit. Windows began to form part of his painting, and from that moment onwards would become a recurrent motif. Equally frequent is the presence of a character self-absorbed while reading. Viñes’ works are now sustained by a finer balance and his paintings turn much brighter.

The painting at hand depicts an intimate, serene scene where echoes of post-impressionistic and fauve interiors from French painting may be appreciated. Viñes’ fauvist style is predicated on a blend of colours chromatically organising the painting, characterised by the structure and arrangement of a space created thanks to a play of light, pursuing a transparency of matter and succeeding in attaining a special atmosphere.

Again we have his usual seated figures, the subject matter of reading and windows, although, in this case, the window is barely outlined. The light entering through it falls on the character: a young seated man is writing a letter, as confirmed by the title on the label on the back. The man’s features suggest that this work might be a self-portrait.